Effect of prophylactic central neck dissection following total thyroidectomy on surgical site wound infection, hematoma, and haemorrhage in subjects with clinically node-negative papillary thyroid carcinoma: A meta-analysis.

We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of prophylactic central neck dissection following total thyroidectomy on surgical site wound infection, hematoma, and haemorrhage in subjects with clinically node-negative papillary thyroid carcinoma. A systematic literature search up to April 2022 was performed and 3517 subjects with clinically node-negative papillary thyroid carcinoma at the baseline of the studies; 1503 of them were treated with prophylactic central neck dissection following total thyroidectomy, and 2014 were using total thyroidectomy. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to assess the effect of prophylactic central neck dissection following total thyroidectomy on surgical site wound infection, hematoma, and haemorrhage in subjects with clinically node-negative papillary thyroid carcinoma using the dichotomous method with a random or fixed-effect model. The prophylactic central neck dissection following total thyroidectomy subjects had a significantly lower surgical site wound infection (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.20-0.78, P = .007) in subjects with clinically node-negative papillary thyroid carcinoma compared with total thyroidectomy. However, prophylactic central neck dissection following total thyroidectomy did not show any significant difference in hematoma (OR, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.43-2.71, P = .87), and haemorrhage (OR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.26-1.97, P = .52) compared with total thyroidectomy in subjects with clinically node-negative papillary thyroid carcinoma. The prophylactic central neck dissection following total thyroidectomy subjects had a significantly higher surgical site wound infection, and no significant difference in hematoma, and haemorrhage compared with total thyroidectomy in subjects with clinically node-negative papillary thyroid carcinoma. The analysis of outcomes should be with caution because of the low number of studies in certain comparisons.